Image forming apparatus including displayed notification to prompt cleaning of charger and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10108103-B2
Application number	US-201715596080-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2017
Priority date	May 27, 2016
Publication date	Oct 23, 2018
Grant date	Oct 23, 2018

Abstract

An image forming apparatus that includes a charger for charging a surface of a photoreceptor and that forms an image by using an electrophotographic system, the charger being configured to be cleanable, includes a guidance notification unit that causes a guidance notification prompting cleaning of the charger to be displayed and a guidance notification determination unit that, in accordance with a threshold set in accordance with usage condition of the image forming apparatus, determines whether or not to cause the guidance notification to be displayed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus that forms an image by using an electrophotographic system, the image forming apparatus comprising:
a charger for charging a surface of a photoreceptor, the charger being configured to be cleanable;
a notification unit that causes a guidance notification prompting cleaning of the charger to be displayed; and
a notification determination unit that, in accordance with a threshold set in accordance with usage condition of the image forming apparatus, determines whether or not to cause the guidance notification to be displayed; wherein
the guidance notification is displayed on a display portion of the image forming apparatus so as to obstruct an output operation button with which output processing is performed;
the guidance notification includes an operation button that is operable on a screen of the display portion of the image forming apparatus and causes the guidance notification to disappear from the display portion of the image forming apparatus in response to the operation button being operated; and
the guidance notification is selected from a plurality of guidance notifications in accordance with the usage condition of the image forming apparatus.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the threshold is set in accordance with an environment coefficient that is applied in accordance with usage condition of the image forming apparatus.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the environment coefficient includes at least one of temperature, humidity, printing rate, and number of days from first use of the image forming apparatus.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the notification unit causes the guidance notification to be displayed on the display portion of the image forming apparatus.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the notification unit causes the guidance notification to be displayed by using a printer driver.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the threshold is set in accordance with a discharging time of the charger.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the threshold is set in accordance with a usage distance of the photoreceptor.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the threshold is set in accordance with a usage time of the photoreceptor.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the guidance notification includes an additional operation button that is operable on the screen of the display portion of the image forming apparatus and informs that cleaning has been performed.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program causing a computer connectable to an image forming apparatus that includes a charger for charging a surface of a photoreceptor, the charger being configured to be cleanable, and that forms an image by using an electrophotographic system, to execute a process comprising:
causing a guidance notification prompting cleaning of the charger to be displayed;
determining, in accordance with a threshold set in accordance with an environment coefficient obtained from usage condition of the image forming apparatus, whether or not to cause the guidance notification to be displayed;
displaying the guidance notification on a display portion of the image forming apparatus so as to obstruct an output operation button with which output processing is performed; and
selecting the guidance notification from a plurality of guidance notifications in accordance with the usage condition of the image forming apparatus; wherein
the guidance notification includes an operation button that is operable on a screen of the display portion of the image forming apparatus and causes the guidance notification to disappear from the display portion of the image forming apparatus in response to the operation button being operated.

Assignees

• Sharp Kk

Inventors

• Nishimura Yasuhiro
• Saikoh Hideji

Classifications

• G03G15/0225 Primary

  provided with means for cleaning the charging member · CPC title

• H04N1/00602

  Feed rollers · CPC title

• H04N1/00411

  the display also being used for user input, e.g. touch screen · CPC title

• G03G15/0258 Primary

  provided with means for the maintenance of the charging apparatus, e.g. cleaning devices, ozone removing devices G03G15/0225, G03G15/0291 takes precedence · CPC title

• G03G15/553

  Monitoring or warning means for exhaustion or lifetime end of consumables, e.g. indication of insufficient copy sheet quantity for a job · CPC title